Abstract:

Despite rapid increases in the building industry’s contribution to resource depletion, waste generation and energy consumption, the
creation of built environment remains vital to a country’s economic development. This makes the building industry a prime candidate for
sustainable development. Tools that help estimate the environmental suitability of building products can advance the cause of sustainable
development.
In this study, we estimate the environmental suitability of 1ve of the most commonly used wall materials in Sri Lanka (brick, cement
masonry unit, cabook, rubble AND wattle and daub). An “Environmental Suitability Index” is developed based on three parameters:
embodied energy, life-cycle costs and re-usability. The possibility of using similar indices for other materials in Sri Lanka as well as
elsewhere are explored.